AFD
As a user on Wookieepedia, I have witnessed many phases on the wiki. There have been user and visitor spikes during major releases, such as a TCW season's first episode or TOR's release. However, except for these occasional spikes, the editor count has been declining since its peak around 2008. The number of pages viewed per visitor has also been on the decline, indicating that people spend less time on the site than they used to. This could, until very recently, be seen on Quantcast; however, Wikia has decided that visitor counts etc. are business secrets. In discussing this with the rest of the administration, we came to the conclusion that something needed to be done. Users who sign up need to stay involved and passers-by need to get involved. We need to make Wookieepedia a place where anyone can feel like they make a difference. After several long conversations between my fellow administrators, followed by some collaboration with Lucasfilm VIPs and Wikia Staff, we've decided to make some major changes in how the site is run. Firstly, we need to make everyone feel like they are welcome, and we will therefore start allowing any fan activity to have a page on the site. Wookieepedia:Notability of fan projects will no longer be Wookieepedia policy. We've discussed this with the administrators of the SWfans wiki, and they've agreed with the merge. Secondly, we have also decided to allow fanon on the site. This has been discussed with SWfanon's administrators, and we will be moving their content to Wookieepedia shortly. How exactly the content will be added to the site has not yet been decided; essentially we have two options: (a) Creating pages named "Fanon:" or just incorporating the fanon into existing articles, maybe with "fanon start" and "fanon end" tags (like the minor spoiler tags). We have transferred some articles from SWfanon to Wookieepedia to see how it would look like, as well as featuring fanon on the Main page together with an FA. In accordance with the merge, we will be unblocking all users that are currently blocked for the addition of fanon into articles. The decision to merge is final and is not up for discussion. However, we are more than glad to listen to your ideas how to exactly incorporate fanon with the rest of the content on the site. We are going to discuss this for a couple of days before the content is going to be merged. Regards, on the behalf of the administration Announcement to go out at some point Wookieepedia Administrators are currently working with Wikia Staff to deploy an automated process to simultaneously unblock every user previously blocked solely for posting excessive fanfiction or fanart. This process should be ready to activate in approximately 24 to 48 hours. Please do not attempt to circumvent any existing blocks in the meantime, as this may interrupt the unblock process or cause existing blocks to be extended. Thank you for your patience during this transition. A message from Dave Filoni (This gets released as part of the initial announcement) Dear fans, A few months ago, we made the transition from the StarWars.com Databank to the new Encyclopedia, and included links to your Wookieepedia, without explaining our reasoning. Leland and I feel the time has come to explain our decision, and share some exciting new developments for the future of the Star Wars canon. First, we acknowledge that Wookieepedia has done a far better job of chronicling the facts and history of Star Wars than the official site ever did. We should have given up on that a long time ago, and we have finally deferred to the masters in that regard. But in addition to that, I've been looking at the interesting changes I've made to this great universe and thought, "why should I have all the fun?" So in conjunction with the administration of Wookieepedia, Star Wars Fanon, and Star Wars Fan Wiki, we are creating a process by which you, the fans, will integrate your own creations into the Star Wars canon. Leland will explain this in greater detail, but in a nutshell, Wookieepedia will replace the Holocron as the official chronicle of continuity, and your creations will be taken into account in all new material published by our licensing partners. I, for one, find this extremely exciting, as my own creations prior to joining Lucasfilm, when I went by the online handle of SuperShadow, will finally get the recognition they always deserved. So have fun, and know now that your creative efforts will have greater meaning. We regret that we will be unable to compensate any of you directly, but Wikia will receive a percentage of future Lucasfilm publishing revenues, and I'm certain they will be able to work out an amicable arrangement with the userbase. Dave Filoni A Message from Leland Chee (This goes out around 10 PM UTC on April 1 / 6 PM Eastern) Dear Pack of Rabid Badgers, IT'S YOUR PROBLEM NOW, BITCHES!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! For years, I've tried to keep up with all this crap, and frankly I think I've done a fairly decent job, but there was always SOMETHING that you vile nerds would point out that someone got wrong, and if I didn't push out an update to every single author fast enough then OH MY GOD THE WORLD IS GOING TO END BECAUSE THIS (PERSON/SECTOR/WHOGIVESACRAP)'S NAME IS SPELLED WRONG or WHY CAN'T LELAND KEEP THAT (SHIP/PLANET/SPECIES/WHATTHECRAPEVER)'S HISTORY STRAIGHT? Well screw it, and screw you. Not my problem anymore. The Wookieepedia admins are going to review everything, revert anything that is WAY too outlandish or sucks WAY too bad, then send me a monthly update, and I'll pass that on to the authors. Yep, I'm just a gofer now. And I still get paid the same. And you're responsible for keeping Wookieepedia updated for whatever comes out in newly-published official material, since it's the primary continuity database now. You people need to thank whatever deity you believe in that Karen Traviss quit. Good luck. Tasty Taste Discussion Filter message In accordance with the new Holocron replacement system being codeveloped with Leland Chee, all submissions to Wookieepedia will now be moderated. To make any changes to an article, please place a request at the new edit request page, and your request will be scheduled to avoid conflicts with other creators. Thank you for your patience.